The Post Office has taken a significant step towards replacing its Horizon IT system with a call for industry partners on a provider panel.
It has published a market opportunity notice looking for support in a six-month project, valued at up to £75 million, to create a new branch IT system as part of its Strategic Platform Modernisation Programme (SPMP).
This is part of a move towards a radical change in the Post Office’s digital infrastructure, after failures in the Horizon system – introduced in the late 1990s – were implicated in the convictions of over 900 subpostmasters for theft, fraud and false accounting. Many of the convictions have now been overturned on the basis that the system provided inaccurate records of transactions.
In 2021 the Post Office began pilots in developing new technology but has indicated that it will take time to design, build and test a new system and that Horizon will remain in place for some years.
It has previously agreed contracts with the developer Fujitsu Services to extend the use of Horizon and Accenture to support the SPMP programme.
Responsibility and engagement
The new market notice says the Post Office will retain responsibility for the overall programme management, strategy and architecture, but needs to engage with third parties to create the necessary solution.
This has led to the plan for a small panel of providers – envisaged to total about six – who will be able take part in mini-competitions for parcels of work.
An earlier plan to move horizon to a network of AWS data centres was abandoned due to technical difficulties, according to a BBC report.
